From the Backlist: Bringing the Passion

Image by Guren-The-Thirdeye from Pixabay

 
As we move toward the end of the year, it's refreshing to look at the backlist and think about what came before. As this post from 2011 shows us, writer's are always looking for inspiration to bring more power, passion and riveting storytelling to their works. 

With that in mind, today's selection from the Backlist is Kim Falconer's writing tips on Bringing the Passion. Good for all seasons! 
 

We hope you enjoy!

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Sunday, October 16, 2011 

Bringing the Passion

by Kim Falconer

Write while the heat is in you. -- Henry David Thoreau

Passion translates through the pages and to make sure readers are enthralled, the writer must be too. But deadlines don’t go away when there is a lull, or the holidays have arrived, or there’s a new show on HBO. Writers must write, high, low, rain, sleet or perfect beach weather. Where does the inspiration come from? Here are a few ideas:

Tip #1 Show up: Writing is like a date; you have to show up if you want something to happen. Get to your desk every day, turn the computer on and say here we go! Sooner or later the Muse will be there, but you have to make the first move. Always.

Tip #2 Set an intention: State your goal for the day. Say it aloud. You might also write it down on a post-it and stick it to your monitor. It might be, two thousand words a day, flowing like a river, or ten pages edited, clean and easy. Setting an intention keeps the goal in sight. Adding a ‘feel good’ to the statement lifts the spirit.

Tip #3 Write what you love: This is major. If you aren’t passionate about your story, readers won’t be either. This isn’t something you can fake. Write what lights you up. If your current assignment doesn’t, find a way to change your mind about it. Throw caution to the wind. Fall head over heels. You have to LOVE the thing to make it sing!

See More of Kim's Books

Tip #4 Look after yourself: When others are on holidays, splashing in the pool or gliding down the ski slope, the ‘blank screen’ can seem like a punishment. When this happens, amp up the self-nurturing! Good food, power naps, exercise and socialise. Deadlines to not equate with prison sentences. You’ll get more done if you schedule in daily ‘me’ time.

Tip #5 Evoke the muse: In ancient times, no story told without calling on the Muses. ‘Tell me, O Muse,’ Homer begins, and we know where that got him. Stephen King suggests that when writers feel blocked it’s not because the Muse has abandoned them: I think what happens is that the writers themselves sow the edges of their clearing with poison bait to keep their muses away, often without knowing they are doing it. Love your Muse and she will love you back! More on evocations

Tip #6 Ghost write: If the keys aren’t clicking, open a new word .doc and write a few paras in another voice...

Read the complete article here: Bringing the Passion

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Speculative Fiction (Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy) for adults and teens.

 

 

We're a group of best-selling authors providing news, reviews and interviews from the darker, more speculative side of fiction.

Fiction that makes the heart beat faster...

 

Fiction Predictions: Dahl's Vision of AI Generated Text

Image by Maklay62 from Pixabay

Welcome to the next edition of the Fiction Predictions series. Today I take us back seventy years to a story written by the prolific but controversial author Roald Dahl. While Dahl’s personal legacy is riddled with documented bigotry and cruelty, his 1953 short story 'The Great Automatic Grammatizator' remains an uncanny structural prediction of the modern AI crisis.

The Grammatizator

Long before computers could produce text, Roald Dahl wrote about a gifted mechanic who realises that the human mind follows fixed, predictable rules when writing fiction. He builds a massive mechanical engine called the "Great Automatic Grammatizator." By pulling a few levers to select a genre, tone, and plot structure, the machine churns out a flawless, prize-winning in fifteen minutes.

Grammatizator

Sound familiar?

In today's world, with a few clicks of the mouse to select a genre, tone, and plot structure, AI can churn out a 'flawless', potentially prize-winning novel in a few minutes.

But that's not all Dalh predicted.

Echoing today's concerns over writers losing their livelihoods, the machine in Dahl’s story becomes so efficient that it buys out all the human authors in the world. Real writers are forced to sign licensing agreements, giving up their names so the machine can publish automated content under their brands. It ends with a chilling plea from a starving human writer struggling not to sign the contract—a mirror image of modern creatives fighting against AI scraping and automated text.

Is this a step to full simulation?

Notice that while stories like The Matrix or The 13th Floor predicted the world as a simulation, Roald Dahl predicted the industrial economics of it. He foresaw that long before a computer would simulate an entire universe, it would first simulate the human mind, a writer’s mind... and then an actor’s face, just to save a studio money. If you aren't convinced, Google AI-generated vertical short drama. Or, just watch some on Insta.

The Death of the Author 2.0

It seems that Dahl predicted a whole new level of Barthes's death of the author. 

Literary theorist Roland Barthes argued that the intentions and biography of an author should not be used to determine the "true" meaning of a text. Instead of a creator who precedes the work, Barthes introduced the "scriptor"—someone born simultaneously with the text and who mixes pre-existing cultural codes, languages, and quotations to create story. In this way, the text is born in the reader's mind, that endpoint being the "true" interpretation and nuance of the work.

Is our future one where an algorithm generates the text, senses the cultural temperature, and sanitises the output in real-time, all at once?

While pondering that, let's take a moment to look at the impulse of the "powers that be" to retroactively edit human thought for mass consumption. 

Anselm Feuerbach: Plato's Symposium

The Posthumous Edit: From Plato to Puffin 

Throughout history, we can see a powerful impulse to step in and 'correct' human expression. For example, in the early Christian era, scholars systematically sanitised Plato—particularly his exploration of Eros and the nature of love—to align with the dominant religious orthodoxy of the time. 

Fast forward to 2023, and an example of the same process occurs. Long after Roald Dahl's death, publishers utilised sensitivity editors to scrub his catalogue, swapping out language regarding appearance and gender to fit contemporary cultural standards (markets). This isn't an argument for right or wrong. It's a statement about authorial control. 

Dahl himself was a figure whose real-world prejudices are well-documented. Yet, here is the irony: in his work, 'The Great Automatic Grammatizator,' he predicted a future where a machine would automate and curate literature. Decades later, his own human thoughts became the target of that same systematic, corporate curation.

Fear of Human Complexity

AI Bolggers Vs. Human Bloggers

In Plato’s case, the establishment feared that his nuanced views of desire and love (Eros) didn't fit the strict moral binary of the early Church. 

In Dahl’s case, modern publishers seemed to fear that his raw, unvarnished, and often unpleasant language wouldn't fit a modern corporate streaming ecosystem.

In both cases, the story was changed to sell the concept.

Was the Grammatizator Inevitable?

Given the human propensity toward power over (ironically the antithesis of Love according to Plato) and Barthes thesis of the death of the author, was Dalh's story of the Grammatizator and link to AI an inevitable artifact of the human mind, or one man's ability to foresee the future? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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About Kim Falconer

The Amassia Series

Kim Falconer, also writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. 

 Quantum Enchantment

Kim can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

See you there! 

Read Blood and Water, a PNR alt history that will leave you questioning every natural disaster ever endured.

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.” 

From the Backlist: Making Wishes

 

Image by VitorCruz2019 on Pixabay

 

Welcome to our October posts from the Backlist! 

Today's spotlight was written October 7, 2010 by the fabulous author Jocelynn Drake. This gives us a chance to say Happy Birthday to all the Libra's and wonderful dreamers out there who still blow out the candles . . . and make a wish!

Hope you enjoy!

You can read more about Jocelynn Drake on her website. 

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Making Wishes

by Jocelynn Drake 

Oct 7, 2010 

Today is my birthday. Yep, I unwittingly chose the seventh of every month to write my blog post for Supernatural Underground simply because it seemed rare for me to be traveling at that time. For some reason, all conferences and out-of-town appointments tended to fall in the middle or the end of the month. It honestly didn't occur to me that I had chosen the date of my birth to be one of my blog entries.

So, today I'm going to talk about birthday wishes. These are something that I take very seriously. Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. My family gathers around and sings "Happy Birthday" as badly as possible. And trust me, they are getting really good at being really bad. And then I make a wish before blowing out the growing numbers of candles.

I look back and I remember that there were some years that I simply wished to be happy, but then those were some dark years. However, most the time, it was the same wish over and over again -- I wished to be published. Writing has been my heart and soul for so much of my life that I wished on candles, shooting stars, and pennies in a fountain that my words would one day be read by others. That's not to say that I didn't also work my butt off to also make it happen, but I like to think that all that hard wishing also helped to add a special magical aspect to it all.

Now that I've accomplished that mean feat, I have to come up with a new wish. I think I've got one, but

I obviously can't share it or it may never happen. However, I will share with you an impossible wish that I have. I wish I could sit down and have a long dinner with my main characters Mira and Danaus. (Perferrably when they are both in a good mood and not fighting with each other.) Both creatures are not only something other than human, but also centuries old. 

I would love to hear from their mouths their thoughts on the world, humanity, and the struggles they've been through, including the people they have loved and lost. I want to hear about their dreams and fears. And for reason, something in me yearns to actually hear their laughter and see them in person as they gaze across the table at each other as they share a private joke. In them are deep layers of love and loss and desperation and hope. I only wish I could see it in person, because I think it would truly be a beautiful thing. 

Read the full post here . . . 

 

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Speculative Fiction (Fantasy/Thriller/Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy) for adults and teens.

 

 

We're a group of best-selling authors providing news, reviews and interviews from the darker, more speculative side of fiction.

Fiction that makes the heart beat faster...

Pressing Pause on Posting – Just For Now!

 .

… which also means a hiatus on heroines. Again, just for now!

WALL #4 edit time!

All because I am deep in the throes of editing the final book in The Wall of Night series, and the wheels of high-level creativity and attention to fine detail are both grinding away at the macro and macro levels. O-o!

The Wall of Night series -- USA

Leaving no bandwidth for doing justice to blog posts as well. :-/

The Wall of Night series -- UK

But fear not, I already have great ideas for more heroines posts. So once the edit’s a wrap, I shall be back.

Not quite like this ;-)

Meanwhile, I believe SU HQ have some ideas to fill the gaps so there’ll be plenty to read here. J
And watch for me in the new year.

~*~

About Helen Lowe

Helen Lowe is the award-winning author of Thornspell and The Wall Of Night fantasy series, as well as a poet, blogger, and lover of story. She is currently editing the the final book in The Wall of Night series. 

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.